Campaign Description
So many things were lost in areas affected by the earthquake, including the smiles of the children that give us hope. What can JAXA do to help? Our objective was to show space in a more exciting and fascinating way and to make the children affected by the disaster smile again using means only available to JAXA.
Every year in Japan, there is a traditional festival where wishes are written on colourful paper called 'Tanzaku' and wished for upon the stars. It is a 2,000 year-old traditional event. The largest of these festivals are held in the Tohoku area, which was hit by the earthquake.
In the year of the earthquake, JAXA felt the need to be innovative with a traditional event using something that only JAXA had within its reach: Space. In addition, give children a chance to have big dreams and hopes for the future.

Effectiveness
The project began with visiting the disaster sites and collecting children’s wishes written on Tanzaku. The Tanzaku itself represent the children’s wishes.
We collected over 5,000 Tanzaku and sent them all to the Japanese astronaut at the Space Station.
A special video feed was sent to the disaster areas while the astronaut wished upon stars in space. The children were overjoyed that their Tanzaku had reached space.

Implementation
The event was promoted through Nissan TV commercials and their website and on JAXA’s website. The special video feed from the Space Station was promoted at the event venue Tohoku University and on the JAXA website.

Outcome
The children’s’ wishes and special video feed event was aired as the top news on national TV and in various other media. After this event, JAXA’s popularity was ranked third in Japan and the public awareness of JAXA rose above NASA. In addition, the priceless smiles of the children returned. (Public Awareness of JAXA: 76%) (Public Awareness of NASA: 73.7%).